PSP at full power for God of War's handheld debut

God of War: Chains of Olympus will be among the first PSP games to take advantage of the handheld's newly unlocked CPU power, according to creative director Cory Barlog.

"Many people are asking if God of War: Chains of Olympus is going to take advantage of this. The short answer is yes we are!" he wrote on Sony's recently launched US blog.

Barlog's post comes after Sony Computer Entertainment America confirmed that the current version 3.5 firmware removes the software restriction capping the CPU speed at 266 MHz.

Reaching higher - toward the 333 MHz top-speed - comes at the cost of draining the battery at a greater rate, but presumably that doesn't matter when you're a god.

Alternatively, others have interpreted the move as a prelude to the announcement of a redesigned PSP with a longer battery life and other improved features.

Back in the real world, Barlog's confident that the work on Chains of Olympus - underway at Daxter developer Ready At Dawn - will meet with our approval come release, and hints that we can expect more information during E3 in a couple of weeks.

God of War: Chains of Olympus has yet to be given a release date.